Rosie, I'd say we simul-posted, but since it was a bit apart, I'm gonna guess I was crafting my post when yours went up. If you want to argue my omniscience, talk with the kids I work with. They have yet to figure out that I can hear things and sense movement, even when I'm out of the room. Plus they are dreadfully predictable. Economics is fun, and the Vikings in Iceland book sounds interesting, too. I'm actually supposed to be headed there in about two weeks. Pray I don't freeze.

Hmm...favorite part of the Nutcracker.... That's complicated because I danced it for about a decade, so I have a very intense love/hate relationship with the entirety, and I've probably watched it from the wings more times than I can count. I probably like the Waltz of the Snowflakes the most, despite the fact that I once got pulled from a role because they didn't have enough people to sing for it (nbd, since most people do 3-5 changes throughout the two acts, but still a bit...strange). Ended up with five people singing it, four of them being small children. But I love the choreography. Watching it this time was strange because there was the choreography of this production, and then there was the choreography that was playing in my head, and they were sometimes vastly different. The Pas de Deux (The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is the female section of the pas de deux) is also a favorite, but of course it would be, since it is danced by the primo and the prima, and they're traditionally the *best* dancers in the production.

The only type of cocoa that can tempt me anymore is Irish Drinking Chocolate, which is pretty much the most amazing thing, since it quite literally has a full ladle of melted chocolate in it. I miss it greatly.

Booky, you might try cow milk overseas. I can drink it on pretty much any other continent but the American one. Also, I like Rosie's theory about you. It fits in more ways than one.

Aileth, I hope you feel better soon! Do you have like a mudroom outside where you could perhaps put dairy stuff? I've done that one before.

In Thanksgiving's Defense, Rya, the leaves are all still nice and colorful in California at the end of November. Honestly, I don't think it's so much the fault of thanksgiving but the fault of the people who refuse to even think of Christmas before Thanksgiving. Who cares if half the Christmas decorations are up in time for Thanksgiving? It makes it more cheerful. And less stressful.

Following up on the general Christmas Dinner traditions, we don't have much of one (beside food), although my dad made cioppino Christmas Eve throughout my childhood. I don't eat non-finned seafood anymore (unless it's impolite to turn an item down), so I don't have that, but I do make the base and put it over chicken. Or dumplings. Or on pita. It's fairly versatile. We also do cinnamon rolls Christmas Eve morning, and sometimes Christmas Day, depending on the schedule. Besides the usual chocolate coins for Hanukkah, we don't tend to have any set foodie things for that.

Howdy y'all! Happy Holidays and all of that jazz, it's been one heck of a year hasn't it? Setting aside the craziness that's happened out in the world though, a lot has changed for me on a personal level. Left home, soldiered up and now I'm off on my own in beautiful North Carolina, (its not that pretty).

Christmas was pretty quiet this year, in sharp contrast to the ruckus I'm used to, coming from a family of eight kids, in fact I took my buddies duty on the 25th. He's got wife and kid so I figured he should be home with them, yah know? They made me some real good food though, so karma evened it all out in the end.

I just remembered that I have hot coco in the cupboards, imma go make some of that right now. Nice seeing y'all again!

If I'm a changeling, I wish my real family would hurry up and take me back. Faeries don't have to pay student loans and car insurance. Though they probably don't have wifi and cell service, so I guess it balances out.

So cute about your nephew taking it upon himself to pray before Christmas dinner, Rya! And oooh @Avatar comics. I've never gotten into reading those, but I love the show. And ditto to Valia—I want to know about this chicken cordon bleu hack as well!

That Santaland exhibit sounds really nice, Mel! I don't know if it's the influence of Frozen, but I love seeing more Scandinavian motifs and designs pop up this time of year. So pretty! And I concur with Wren; I'm very charmed by the thought of the singing trees. Your mentioning of ebooks reminded me that I really need to charge my Nook... and perhaps look into a new battery for it.

Oooh, you're going to Iceland next month, Wren?! If I weren't already a dryad, being green with envy would be more apparent. Hug one of those wonderful little grassy-roofed houses for me; I love those. And take pictures.

*finds, to her delight, that Irish Drinking Chocolate has suddenly materialized on the dessert table, and quickly grabs a mug*

I've heard that some people who can't tolerate pasteurized milk do fine with raw (and I believe it's always raw in Europe), but I've never had any myself. Need to make a point to do that whenever I'm out of NC; the milk laws have the raw milk pretty well locked down in this state.

Well if it isn't Jackalope Joe, as I live and breathe! *sputters* What do you MEAN it's not that pretty? You clearly need jackalope-sized glasses. That's very sweet of you to take over your friend's duty so he could be with his wife and kids. What a wonderful Christmas gift! It's good to see you around these parts again, too! I'm glad to hear you're doing well, even though life is pretty different for you now!

But Booky, I have this awful feeling that the real Booky is the most nicely boring person on the face of the earth, and we'd get so sick of him that we'd all embark on a quest into faerieland to find you, and you would want to come back (the brambly castle of doom has a nice aesthetic, but it's kind of lonely) but you wouldn't want to admit that you missed all of us, and we'd have to spend a bunch of time trying to convince you, and it would be such a mess...

Doing things in exchange for good food is always good, Joe. Although in some cases doing things in exchange for good hard cash is a bit better. Best if you can settle somewhere between the two, I suppose.

Rosie, I know the real Booky, and you're right. He can be sort of boring, doesn't travel, and I think he's a sort of walmart working dude. He has a bright imagination, which is a plus, but I much prefer my sparing partner. And if you can convince enough people to do any sort of RP, I'll gladly unlock any threads which are necessary for you to write in.

Yup, I leave for Iceland in 12 days (!!) and I still need to order new shoes. If I see a grassy house, I will give it a hug for you, Rosie, even though that might be strange. I kind of doubt it, though, as it's supposed to be Quite Cold with snow and ice and things.

I realized today, while I was working on a blog post about my time in Paris, and posting on here about Iceland, that I must be more careful with my jokes. I was recently talking with a friend online, and mentioned something about internet being spotty, unless I got stranded in the Himalayas, where there would be none at all. I just now realized that with me there's a 50/50 chance of that statement being accurate. Oh dear.

* briefly wonders about making a "grow your own cow and juice it" joke, but decides she'll leave that for Booky to do *

* may or may not be joining Mel-y in the kitchen to study the pan *

Speaking of, I can't seem to find my Soup Bible, and I'm supposed to make mushroom (or mushroom and brie) soup tonight. You'd think with the number of books I have, I'd have a better system to keep track of all of them, but apparently not. The only ones which I know For Sure where they are are all the children's books I've boxed up.

Pfft, Wren, I think it was pretty rubbish of those scheming faeries to leave the human Booky in a Walmart of all places after dropping our changeling Booky off at his adoptive parents' house! Perhaps we ought to go rescue him.

No getting stranded in the Himalayas, especially this time of year! Absolutely off the table.

*hands you a geiger counter, a metal detector and an Indiana Jones hat in hopes they might aid in locating the lost Bible of Soup*

*joins the staring contest in the kitchen with Wren and Mel* It's so shiny and beautiful and perfect for your next potluck.

Iceland, Wren? Wow! Is it for work or pleasure? And why might you end up stranded in the Himalayas? You seem to be entirely far too adventurous of late.

Hi, nn! Great to see you again!

*considers whether she needs to hide her new pan or just make goodies with it* (I already told some of my co-workers about it and how it should hopefully make it easier to bring things in for the weekly baked good rotation, and one of them said, "That's the gift that keeps on giving!" So now I need to actually make something with it and bring it in.)

Rose, I don't think I knew you'd seen AtLA! Isn't fun? I need to do a rewatch sometime as I have forgotten lots of the little details...

"You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls.""No, it doesn't."

But maybe if you get stranded in the Himalayas you'll find a mysterious city filled with assassins and/or magicians and learn the ancient secrets of world domination. Well, the ones you don't know already.

I need to rewatch A:TLA too, Valia! I haven't really watched it since before LoK started, so it's been way too long. My cousin introduced me to the show years and years ago... she's almost a foot shorter than me, but I'm pretty sure that her obsession with it probably has something to do with the fact that she would likely beat me in hand to hand combat. It's a very good thing she isn't a bender.

Secrets of world domination... or WiFi. Secrets of world domination... or WiFi. Decisions, decisions.

If we're in a staring competition with an inanimate object, I've a feeling the inanimate object will win.

Me, Valia? Me be adventurous? Let me remind you it's been *counts* six countries since I last fell any great distance, and six since I've broken anything. That's got to count for something, right??? And I turned down swimming with the sharks. Still kicking myself over that one. Anyway, yeah, this is actually taking the place of my St. Lucia/T&T trip.

Actually, the Himalayas aren't *too* bad right now...it's only -36F/-38C in Nanga Parbat right now (that's in the peaks) and with the foothills well above freezing (64F/18C).

I've never been stranded, thank you, with the exception of when American Airlines was rude and left me behind in Dallas when I was seven. And I know absolutely nothing about shadowy networks that taught me to find my self worth and kick behind. It's all completely natural.

It's actually surprisingly easy to go without wifi if you have things to do. Sometimes I turn my wifi off so I can actually get things done. As long as I have books, I'm happy. Although when you're trying to pretend that you're asleep to escape being talked to, phones are much more handy than books, because pages can be noisy at times.

Rose, it's been at least that long since I've seen AtLA too. And that's great about your cousin. Have you thought about what element you would bend if you could?And I'll keep your vote in mind for the 9x13 pan. I actually have a brownie mix that I haven't done anything with, though I don't think it's double-fudge.

Booky, Netflix queue is a good excuse. Mine is mostly no DVDs and no time.

Wren wrote:Me, Valia? Me be adventurous? Let me remind you it's been *counts* six countries since I last fell any great distance, and six since I've broken anything.

You know most people don't count countries by their falls and breaks? That said, swimming with sharks?! Where could you have done that? Sorry about your St. Lucia trip falling through. ...did you get left behind all by yourself when you were 7?

"You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls.""No, it doesn't."

Valia, making things in the pan is absolutely the thing to do; also, if you're quick about it you can make use of its admirers and use them to slice and dice and fetch and carry while you supervise the creation of goodies.

I haven't seen Avatar: TLAB, but it has been in my to-watch queue for a very long time because people keep saying good things about it. (It seems ridiculously hard to actually sit down and watch something--case in point, my brother and I think it would be a FABULOUS idea to rewatch Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We've now failed at that for about three days running, but on the other hand this morning we watched a production of the Nutcracker, so... yay spontaneity?)

That's one thing I like a lot about my eReader, Wren; it's stealthy-quiet. No fluttering pages when you're in a room with someone else who's trying to sleep! And the eInk screen is so much easier on the eyes compared to a regular backlit screen.

You getting left behind at the airport feels like a chapter in your supervillain backstory. And understandably so; that's awful. And boo about the cancelled trip to the Caribbean.

Ooh, that's such a good question about what kind of bender I'd be, Valia! I feel like "personality-wise" I'd probably be a waterbender, but I love the idea of being a firebender... you could heat water for tea so quickly and it would be so useful for all sorts of things in the kitchen. But then, I've always been a bit scared of fire, so that would be awkward. What element do you think you would bend? And what about you, Booky?

I volunteer for assisting with the Pan's maiden voyage! *feels like she's talking about the one and only Peter Pan, but no, it's a baking pan*

... *checks to make sure that the Pan is, in fact, casting a shadow*

My brother and I have been trying to watch The Empire Strikes Back for a couple of weeks now, Mel, but we've had trouble getting around to it as well. I think there's just too much to do this time of year!

Happy New Year's Eve, by the way! Do you guys have any New Years' resolutions? I know that I'm going to make a point to try to build some muscle. Since having a back problem over the summer and then having trouble knowing what to eat the past couple of months and having pain from that, I've hardly been exercising at all and I feel like all my muscle is gone. My mom and I had to move a really heavy armoire earlier this month and I felt like I was flailing myself against the thing to get it to move. So I guess one of my main goals, along with the pursuit of general good health, is to increase overall body strength, but I'm sure I'll come up with some other goals as well... I always do, even if I fall short of most of 'em.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid our holiday festivities must come to an end. It was wonderful having all of you back, and I do hope you will visit on a regular basis! While the Cup and Platter is closing, I'm sure Abe and a few of his friends are hanging out in the Town Square, so feel free to to continue your conversations there. If you've never visited before, be assured that there is absolutely no need to read through all of the pages already posted--you can just pop to the 133rd page and continue your conversation there. I'd recommend taking a quick look at the rules, though! Either way, I hope to see you all around Ditto Town soon, and I hope you have a most very jolly New Year.